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So this is the 'new' United
Well its been an interesting 18 months to say the least, an emotional roller coaster of ups and downs, twists and turns and here we are now. Since that day back in May 2013 when Sir Alex announced he was stepping down the club have lurch from problem to problem, with some misplaced optimism and some trips down the wrong roads.
Ultimately we underestimated just how much a struggle we would have in the aftermath of Sir Alex's retirement. But after more than a quarter of a century of one man in charge we failed to realise just how ingrained his very being was to the club and all at the club. He had out lasted them all, there was not a single player, coach, executive or even tea lady left at the club who had known anything but Sir Alex at the helm.
This was always going to be a messy break-up, and as with nearly all break ups one side is always left licking their wounds. As always it is the one being left rather than the one choosing to leave that is left shocked, hurt and with a numb feeling of emptiness.
So we did what everyone does when the one we love leaves us, we dust ourselves down hit the town and pull some auld slapper to make ourselves feel wanted again, enter David Moyes. It's funny how the rebound relationship is always with someone who has a resemblance to the one we have just lost. Unfortunately this rebound relationship never works eventually we realise we are just trying to replace our lost love with a poor substitute and that relationship has run its course and its time to move on and maybe look at a different relationship.
So here we are with Louis van Gaal, a man very different from Sir Alex in many ways but still has that winning mentality and drive for success. He is a man who shares the clubs affinity with youth development, but a man who is used to doing things in a very different way to anything we have done before. We need to trust this man and allow him to show us a new path rather than to keep looking back at what we had.
Too often we look at the past rather than to the future. We base ourselves as a "big club" on what we have done rather than what we are doing or what we intend to do. This is just being human, we tend to cast our minds back to the past and see every thing in a rose tinted glow through the decades and the mists of time.
But we can't allow ourselves to become to fixated on what has been, or we will lose who we are. Look over at Liverpool, they had to totally lose their identity before they could re-find it, something they are only just doing now. They became arrogant and big-headed because of what they had achieved rather than look towards the future and what they intended to achieve.
So what will Louis van Gaal bring to United that is different? Well he will bring back to United all that we should be most proud of. There has been many detractors in the media, some whom we used to and still do call our own. The most recent call is that we are trying to become Real United and bring in our own "Galactico's", but what those people either fail to recognise or are unwilling to is that we are bringing in players similar to what we have always done, but over the last 5/7 years have failed to do so. Yes we have signed several big name players in one window, and I fully expect us to do the same for a couple more windows too. But we are only bringing in the players we should have already had at the club if we hadn't neglected our needs for so many years. I won't go into why we haven't bought as we have done over the last x amount of years as that is a different and sensitive subject for many. They say we are turning our back on our history based on the fact that two home grown players in Welbeck and Cleverley have left the club, but in fact homegrown players have left our squad every single summer for as long as I can remember, Gillespie, Savage and Sharpe, Eagles, Richardson and Campbell. Nearly every club in the Prem has an ex Man Utd youth product in their first team squad. Welbeck and Cleverley are just the next ones who have come through, been given a chance but have failed to make the grade at the club.
We will only be turning our backs on our traditions as these detractors keep saying when we stop giving youth a chance, but correct me if I'm wrong but hasn't LvG given Blackett several chances this season? He will give game time to Januzaj and Wilson as well as maybe James. He gave game time to Pereira too. So hasn't van Gaal shown that he is far from about to close the academy and just buy what he needs?
This is just another media hate campaign, they have revelled in our demise over the last 12 months but now we have a new man in charge, a man who could rebuild our club in such a way that we could be on top for another 10 years or more. So now they seen that our club is far from dead and buried they have to try a different tact to attack our club, one that hasn't even got the slightest amount of truth in it.
Louis van Gaal is restructuring the youth set up so that it will be easier for youngsters to step up to the first team, he is also bringing in new ideas such as teaching these young lads to to total footballers rather than just taught to do one job and specialise in that. He will bring a new tactical education as well and improve all our youngsters as footballers.
He is trying to do the same with the first team, it is always a slower process with older players, but once they get the hang of it we will see a return of winning attacking football. As well as higher quality youth players making the step up to the first team thus allowing the club to focus its transfer funds on higher quality targets and to compete at the highest level for players once again. Di Maria and Falcao are just the start.
So what is this "new" United?
Well it is a blend of the best of what we have been, and the most of what we can become. It is a United that believes in youth players and developing players to become the best, it is a tactical and smarter approach to the game, it is attacking football that excites fans and gets you off your seat. It is the old United that we all love but with a modern and approach and a focus towards the future. This is Louis van Gaal philosophy.
04 September 2014
Good read. Who wrote this?
03 September 2014
Great post Shappy!
03 September 2014
Great post Shappy. Particularly enjoyed the analogy of Moyes and a rebound bird, nail on the head.
Only slight point I would look at is the "giving youth a chance" part of the post. It will be interesting to see how many games, Wilson, Perreira, James, Blackett will get once our injury crisis is over and new players are ready. I genuinely think LVG had no other option but to play Blackett so far, and the Carling Cup we always blood youth.
Part of me thinks LVG has written off the majority of our current crop of youth players because he wants to start a fresh with players learning his methods from the get go, much harder to break habits than to make them.
We will have to see what happens there, but I don't want to give him undue praise yet for playing our youngsters. I'm sure Wilson will make the grade, but game time is an issue for me.
The Beast.